UniverCity life
Unipd teaching platforms and the Learning Agreement
All exchange students must always update their Learning Agreement (LA) and have it corresponding exactly to the course units they attend at Unipd. It is important to know that there is no automatic connection between the LA and Moodle, the LA and Uniweb, Moodle and Uniweb. If you change your LA you will have to report the same changes on your study plan in Uniweb and vice versa.
No course enrolment!
At Unipd you do not need to formally enrol in each one of the courses you will attend. You are enrolled at Unipd University as an exchange student and that’s sufficient to attend classes.
“No course enrolment” does not mean that you don’t have to do anything: you will have to sign up for each course in the e-learning platform Moodle, use the OrariUnipd app, fill out the Study Plan on Uniweb and update your Learning Agreement if there are any changes (see the section During your stay). You will receive detailed instructions during the Welcome Days, and through emails.
When do classes start?
Classes may start earlier or later than the official start dates of the terms published in the Key Academic Dates and in the Course Catalogue. To be sure of the exact start date of your classes, you will need to check the Class timetable of each course unit, which should be available between 4 and 2 weeks before the start of classes (that is, in September and in February).
Class attendance: is it mandatory?
At Unipd, attendance is mandatory for very few course units. You can find this info in our course catalogue (course unit page, first tab: “Information on the course unit” > “Mandatory attendance: Yes/No”). If the attendance is not mandatory, you can skip a few classes, ask your colleagues to borrow their notes, etc. You could even decide not to attend the course unit at all, and still give the final exam (if you have overlapping classes, for instance). In this case, you MUST inform the professor responsible for the course immediately, because non-attending students are usually assigned extra study materials.
No course “shifts” on the timetable
When you look at a course timetable you will notice that there are 2-3 classes per week: it’s not course shifts you can choose from and attend just one class per week, you must attend all the classes, which are held on several days per week.
Timetable clashes and overlapping classes
Having 2 classes at the same time or partially overlapping is pretty normal for exchange students. The reason is that you are allowed to take course units from different degree courses and from different years, while course timetables are structured to avoid overlapping for students belonging to a specific year of a specific degree course.
You must choose how you want to handle this issue:
- You can decide to not attend one course (see point 1 about this)
- You can partially attend both courses (in this case, it’s better if you inform the professors)
- You can attend one course online and the other in presence (if the video recordings of the classes are available in Moodle)
- You can drop one course and change it for another (you will have to change your Learning Agreement)
Class duration
The standard class duration is 45 minutes. When you have “2-hour” class on the same day, the Professor will tell you how they want to manage the total time: they could do 1h30 with no interruptions, they could start later, or they could take a break between the 2 “hours”.
Final exams: how are they carried out?
In Italian universities exams may be written or oral, they may be at the end of the classes or you may have to pass some tests during the course. Final exams may also be composed of more than one test (ie: a written test and an oral exam). For some of you, oral exams may be unusual: they consist of a sort of interview, where the professor will ask you a few questions about the course. They usually last around 20 minutes. For each course, in each exam session, you can choose from two exam dates (“appelli”).
Dates of exams
How to know when your final exams will be?
- The Professor will say it in the first class
- You can search on the Exam Sessions Board on Uniweb
- You can search on the Department website
- You can ask your fellow students at classes
Mandatory sign-up for exams!
A formal sign-up for the final exams (and modules/partial exams) is necessary: you are not automatically allowed to take them! The reason is that you are allowed to choose which one of the 2 available dates you want to give an exam on, so you will have to sign up during the registration window that precedes the date of the exam. You will do this online on Uniweb, roughly 2-3 weeks before the date of the exam.
How to contact and address Professors
If you need to get in touch with the Professor responsible for a course unit, you need to know where to find their contact information and how to address them.
You can search for their surname in the search field of the online course catalogue, you will see all the classes they teach and if you click on their name you will land on their personal page reporting all the info: email address, office address, office hours, etc.
When you address Professors, remember that in Italy we tend to be pretty formal in this kind of relationship (unless it’s the Professor that tells you differently): don’t call them by their first name and always use the title (ie: “Dear Professor Rossi”, not “Dear Mario”). And if you are writing or speaking in Italian, use the courtesy form (“Lei”).
You should always introduce yourself when you send an email, signing with your full name and possibly with your student ID number (“matricola”).
Social rules and Italian law
- In Italy you should have your personal ID card always on you. It is also mandatory giving your name, surname and personal data to any public officer/civil service employee that requests to see it in order to identify you. If you are an extra-EU student and your only ID is your passport, you can carry with you a photocopy of the main pages in case you need to be identified.
- In Italy we have a waste recycling system. You will need to use separate bins at home and then dispose of your waste in the public bins located in the streets or confer them during the door to door collection. You should search for the info related to the place where you live (if you live in Padua, you can see here the map and the different systems according to where you live:
https://www.acegasapsamga.it/clienti/casa/casa_servizio_ambiente/casa_aaa_ambiente_raccolta_differenziata/32372.html) - In Padua we use bicycles a lot, but don’t forget you still have to respect the traffic laws just like other vehicles: don’t ride against traffic, on sidewalks or under the arcades.
- Remember to be respectful of your neighbours' privacy and spaces when you live in a block of flats/apartment house: respect the “silent hours” specified in the house’s regulation (you can ask for it to the landowner), don’t leave the house waste on the landing, maintain the common area in good order.
Erasmus+ for studies (homepage)
Bilateral Agreements (homepage)